Ferris Bueller's Day Off

From the brilliant workings of John Hughes, Ferris Bueller's Day Off is a hilarious, and fun movie about a high school wise guy determined to have a day off from school, despite what the principal thinks of that.

The film follows high school senior Ferris Bueller (Matthew Broderick), who skips school and spends the day in downtown Chicago. Accompanied by his girlfriend Sloane Peterson (Mia Sara) and his best friend Cameron Frye (Alan Ruck), he creatively avoids his school's principal Edward Rooney (Jeffrey Jones), his resentful sister Jeanie (Jennifer Grey), and his parents. During the film, Bueller regularly breaks the fourth wall by speaking directly to the camera to explain to the audience his thoughts and techniques. I think that this was very useful in a coming of age film like this, teens and the audience really felt like they were connected and that they were Ferris' friend. 

Hughes wrote the screenplay in less than a week and shot the film—on a budget of $5.8 million—over three months in 1985. Featuring many famous Chicago landmarks including the then Sears Tower and the Art Institute of Chicago, the film was Hughes' love letter to the city: "I really wanted to capture as much of Chicago as I could. Not just in the architecture and landscape, but the spirit." I think Hughes accomplished this with another winning feel good film. 

 
Released by Paramount Pictures on June 11, 1986, Ferris Bueller's Day Off became one of the top grossing films of the year and was enthusiastically received by critics and audiences alike. In 2014, the film was selected for preservation in the National Film Registry as per being deemed "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant." It captures what kids think the American way of high school life is, or at least what they dream it to be.

 Here are 9 cool facts about Ferris Bueller's Day Off that you probably didn't know:

1) June, 5, 1985 was probably Ferris' real day off.
2) Mr. and Mrs. Bueller were a real-life couple.
3) Though they played sparring brother and sister in the film, Matthew Broderick was actually engaged to his on-screen sister, Jennifer Grey.
4) Though Ferris and company were portraying high-schoolers, only Mia Sara -- who played Ferris' girlfriend Sloane Peterson -- was a teenager at the time of filming.
5) Painter George Seurat's famous work, "A Sunday on La Grande Jatte," is the work that Cameron appears to be so mesmerized by.
6) Cameron's father's smokin' red Ferrari California Spyder was actually a fake.
7) Charlie Sheen really wasn't 'on' anything during his scene in the film.
8) Though the film took place in the greater Chicago area, the Bueller residence was actually a house in Long Beach, California.
9) Look closely and you'll discover every license plate in the movie has a meaning.

Forrest Gump

Forrest Gump is a 1994 American epic romantic-comedy-drama film (genre hybrid) based on the 1986 novel Forrest Gump by Winston Groom. The film was directed by Robert Zemeckis and starred Tom Hanks, Robin Wright, Gary Sinise, Mykelti Williamson, and Sally Field. The story beautifuly illustrates several decades in the life of Forrest Gump, a slow and naïve, but good-hearted and athletically gifted, man from Alabama who witnesses, and in some peculiar cases influences, some of the defining events of the latter half of the 20th century in the United States (the period between Forrest's birth in 1944 and 1982). The film is much different from the novel on which it was based, including Gump's personality and some of the events that took place.

The main sets took place in late 1993, mainly in Georgia, North Carolina, and South Carolina. Extensive visual effects were used to incorporate Gump (Tom Hanks) into archived footage and to develop other fun scenes. A compelling soundtrack was featured in the film, using music intended to pinpoint specific time periods portrayed on screen. Its commercial release made it a top-selling soundtrack, selling over twelve million copies worldwide.  Some of the songs include Hound Dog by Elvis Presley, Fortunate Son by Creedance Clearwater, Respect by Aretha Franklin, and many more American favorites. 

This famous film was released in the United States on July 6, 1994.  The film became a commercial success as the top grossing film in North America released in that year, being the first major success for Paramount Pictures since the studio's sale to Viacom, earning over $677 million worldwide during its theatrical run. Forrest Gump holds a high rating of 8.8 on the Internet Movie Database, which makes it the 13th best movie of all time for the website and in 1995 it won the Academy Awards for Best Picture, Best Director for Robert Zemeckis, Best Actor for Tom Hanks, Best Adapted Screenplay for Eric Roth, Best Visual Effects, and Best Film Editing. Forrest Gump also easily attained multiple other awards and nominations, including Golden Globes, People's Choice Awards, and Young Artist Awards, among others. Ever since the film was released, many variations of interpretations of its protagonist (Forrest Gump) and its political symbolism have been made.  

In 1996, a themed restaurant, Bubba Gump Shrimp Company, opened based on the film and has since expanded to multiple locations worldwide.  If that doesn't show you have much of an impact this film made, I don't know what will!  One of the scenes of the American classic of Gump running across the country is often referred to when real-life people attempt the feat. In 2011, the Library of Congress selected Forrest Gump for preservation in the United States National Film Registry as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".  

After all these facts, can you even argue that this movie isn't the best movie of all time?! If you haven't seen this film yet, it's time to stop whatever you are doing, sit down, and focus your attention on the best movie of all time. 

Geocentrism in Transformers: Age of Extinction

While watching the three hour long Transformers: Age of Extinction this summer, I was given ample time to reflect on the theme of the film. 

 Throughout the film there are many references to beings referred to as “our creators.”  Lockdown, a Transformer, is sent down from another planet to bring Optimus Prime and the other Autobots back to these creators.  When Prime decides to defend the humans, Lockdown continually suggests that Optimus Prime should not side with them.  Lockdown claims that humans believe that they are the most important beings in the universe even though they are aware of the other beings that exist.  Lockdown does not care if the humans destroy themselves, for he believes that they are selfish, greedy, destructive, and geocentric.  He points out that there is war, disease, poverty, and violence on earth.  If humans were removed from the earth, hate and destruction would cease and the earth would prosper again.  Through Lockdown’s hatred of the human race, the filmmakers are trying to convey the message that humans need to be less geocentric, more understanding of other cultures, and less harmful to the environment.

Although the filmmakers attempt to impose this moral on the audience, the characterization of the Transformers proves that we are farther away from changing than we think.  The Autobots and Decepticons transform into bodies that look inherently human.  All of the Transformers have two arms, two legs, and a face with eyes, a nose, a mouth, and projections coming from their heads that appear to be ears.  Not only do these aliens have physical human characteristics, but they also act like humans.  Hound, the Autobot voiced by John Goodman, has a round belly that jiggles when he walks.  He has a beard as well as a mustache and smokes a cigar.  This is completely based off of human appearance as well as culture.  As far as we know, smoking cigars is something that only humans do.  No animal, machine, or other being smokes cigars.

Hound

Another Autobot, Drift, transforms from a Bugatti into a samurai.  Samurais are unique to Japanese culture.  Again, the filmmakers portray a part of human culture that could not be mistaken or interchanged with any other culture.

Drift

Although the message of this film implies that humans need to become more welcoming towards outsiders in order to save the earth, the filmmakers directly oppose that idea by using human characteristics and culture to create the images of the Transformers.  The filmmakers model these alien characters after humans, not giving them their own culture, but imposing ours upon them, proving that we are in fact geocentric.  This directly contradicts the moral that the movie is trying to convey.

Human characterization is given to extra-terrestrial characters in many other alien films as well.  For example, the beloved E.T. has eyebrows, two eyes, a nose, a mouth that melds into a loving smile, and even an affinity for the Coors Light he finds in the fridge.  The movie, Signs, portrays an alien that looks almost entirely human, only more skeletal. The model used for this figure could easily have been the skeletal remains of one of our early ancestors.

E.T. (Even dressed as a human)

The Neanderthal-looking alien from Signs.

 By portraying aliens in films with human characteristics and culture, filmmakers prove that we are, in fact, geocentric and find difficulty in imagining a world too different from our own.